Kafai

My advisor, Michele Jacobsen, lent me the text, Constructivism in Practice.  Yasmin Kafai's chapter on Electronic Play Worlds is of particular interest.  Kafai's 1996 study reveals some interesting gender differences pertaining to game design.  She set out to determine "whether children would import such features as the violence and male-oriented gender stereotyping that are embedded in commercially available video games into their own designs" Also, "given the choice, what kind of video games would girls produce if the design of all the features - genre, place, characters, and interactions - were left to them?" (p. 98).

Kafai observes some key differences between boys and girls pertaining to game design.  She reports that "almost all of the boys created adventure hunts and explorations, whereas the girls' games were more evenly divided among adventure, skill-sport, or teaching games."  In addition, "the sharpest thematic difference between boys and girls concerned the morality issue - the contest between good and evil" and that "not one girl incorporated the conquest for evil in her game" (p. 105).  Also of interest is the fact that "the majority of students created fantasy places" in their games, however, "six of eight girls confined their game places and worlds to real-life settings" (p. 106).

This study is a bit dated in that it precedes the current releases of casual games and games targeted at girls.  Kafai argues that "today's commercial video games do not address girls' interests and concerns" (p. 121).  This study was conducted prior to the release of games such as Nintendogs (http://nintendogs.com/) or websites such as http://www.girlgamer.com which attract a female audience.  That being said, there is still much to be gleaned from Kafai's work.  She does stress that "making video games, as opposed to playing them, clearly engaged girls' and boys' minds and fantasies for a long period of time.  When the tables are turned, video games become a medium for children's personal and creative expression" (p. 121).  The content may differ, but the engagement in this medium for both genders is noteworthy.

Text: Constructivism in Practice - Designing, Thinking, and Learning in a Digital World edited by Yasmin Kafai and Mitchel Resnick 1996 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.  Mahwah, New Jersey.  The study itself is Electronic Play Worlds - Gender Differences in Children's Construction of Video Games by Yasmin B. Kafai.

I was digging around and came upon another Kafai text I will have to check out titled Beyond Barbie & Mortal Combat
http://www.gse.upenn.edu/node/569